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Did You Know?

Trivia:

The kitchen staff for the film was made up largely of Chinese cooks. Some of them had been workers on the transcontinental railroad in 1869, the same construction project that forms the basis of this film.See more »

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The Central Pacific steam engine used in the sequence of the 10 mile day was a coal burner, evident by the straight pipe smokestack. All Central Pacific steam engines at the time were wood burners with a diamond stack or similar smokestack.See more »

THE IRON HORSE (Fox, 1924), directed by John Ford, is an story set
during the middle of the 19th century America about the building of the
first Transcontinental Railroad. One of the very best examples of a
lavish scale western produced during the silent era, said to be the
answer to Paramount's earlier production of THE COVERED WAGON (1923),
but most importantly, the first major project for Ford after nearly a
decade in the director's chair to now gain the recognition he truly
deserves.

The story opens with a prologue set in Springfield, Ill., 1853,
revolving around Davy Brandon, first as a youngster (Winston Miller)
with deep affection towards Miriam Marsh (Peggy Cartwright), his
childhood sweetheart. Davy's father (James Gordon) is a surveyor who
dreams about the crossing of the western wilderness, while Miriam's
father, Thomas Marsh (William Walling), is a skeptic. However, one of
the citizens, Abraham Lincoln (Charles Edward Bull), believes in this
man's theory and knows he'll accomplish his means. Setting out to
accompany his father on a mission to survey an appropriate route
through the mountains for the coming railroad, Davy bids a tearful
farewell to Miriam. During their westward journey, Davy, who is hidden
away because of foreseen danger, witnesses the brutal killing of his
father by a white man dressed up as an Indian whose only identification
if the loss of a thumb and two fingers on his right hand. After burying
his father, Davy is taken in by a passing scouting party. A decade
later, 1862, Abraham Lincoln is president of the United States; Davy
(George O'Brien) is a Pony Express rider out to fulfill his father's
dream leading into the building of the Transcontinental Railroad; and
Miriam (Madge Bellamy), now engaged to Peter Jesson (Cyril Chadwick),
an Eastern surveyor working for her father actually working for Deroux
(Fred Kohler), the richest landowner, who stands to profit if the
railroad goes through instead of through the pass. After being reunited
with Miriam, Jesson finds himself in stiff competition. The two men
become bitter enemies, especially after Jesson's attempts in doing away
with him. Matters become complex until the golden spike gets hammered
into the rail on that historic day of 1869 as east meets west through
the continental railroad.

In the supporting cast are Gladys Hulett (Ruby); Jack O'Brien (Dinny);
three musketeer pals of J. Farrell MacDonald (Corporal Casey); Francis
Powers (Sergeant Slattery); and James Welch (Private Schultz), as well
as historical figures of Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickock and John
Hay enacted by George Wagner, John Padjan and Stanhope Wheatcroft.

THE IRON HORSE (title indicating the locomotive train) plays like a
D.W. Griffith production with prologue, historical figures, flashbacks
and epilogue, and like a screen adaptation to an Edna Ferber novel
telling its story through the passage of time, along with soap-opera
ingredients (complicated love triangle), but no usual conclusions of
central characters going through the white hair and wrinkles aging
process. Overall, this is John Ford's storytelling, cliché as it may
be, placing fictional characters against historic setting, along with
the oft-told murder-mystery subplot of a son out to avenge his father's
killer, a historical movie that's become an important part of cinema
history. Ford, the future four time Academy Award winning director,
with a handful of motion pictures to his credit, best known for
westerns, would provide similar themes in his future film-making. As
popular as THE IRON HORSE was back in 1924, it's amazing that Ford
didn't attempt doing a remake, especially in 1939 when westerns reached
it peak of popularity. It took Cecil B. DeMille to attempt a similar
story with UNION PACIFIC (Paramount, 1939) starring Barbara Stanwyck
and Joel McCrea. Like THE IRON HORSE, UNION PACIFIC, which tells its
story in over two hours, features villains, Indian massacres and
thousands of extras.

George O'Brien, a rugged actor, was an ideal choice for the role of
Davy Brandon. Although he worked under Ford's direction numerous times
in latter years, and showed his capability as a dramatic actor in F.W.
Murnau's SUNRISE (1927), he never achieved major stardom. He did work
steadily mostly in "B" westerns through the early 1950s. Co-star Madge
Bellamy offers her typical heroine performance, caught between two men
who vie for her affection, but is far from being a strong character.
While the acting overall is satisfactory, from today's viewpoint, some
heavy melodramatics as the method of fainting by youngster Davy after
witnessing his father's massacre, or Bellamy's performance in general,
might provoke some laughter. Scenes such as these can be overlooked by
great location scenery as Monument Valley, a race against time and
action scenes typically found in Ford westerns.

Television history to THE IRON HORSE began when it became one of the
movies from the Paul Killiam collection to air on public television's
13-week series of "The Silent Years" (June-September 1975), hosted by
Lillian Gish. In her profile about THE IRON HORSE (accompanied by an
excellent piano score by William Perry), Gish talks about its location
shooting in the Nevada desert, the use of 100 cooks to feed the huge
cast, and 5,000 extras consisting of 3,000 railway workers, 1,000
Chinese laborers, many horses and steers. Decades later, THE IRON HORSE
made it to the American Movie Classics (1997-1999) and Turner Classic
Movies (TCM premiere December 9, 2007 ) accompanied by orchestral score
with 15 minutes of additional footage as opposed to the 119 minutes
presented on both "The Silent Years," and the Western Channel in 2001.
Distributed to home video Critic's Choice in 1997, availability on DVD
came a decade later.

THE IRON HORSE may not be historically accurate as promised through its
opening inter-titles, but it's sure an ambitious John Ford production
to still be entertaining today. (****)

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